Continuing the 1980s theme, here are three VHS videos ready to put in the player in order to watch tonight. The VHS, or Video Home System, was developed in Japan in the 1970s and appeared during the 1980s in the United Kingdom. It was a very popular way of purchasing and watching films, requiring just a suitable video player and, when you see the 1989 house, you will see that one is provided.

The view above is of the three films – yes, three, for Modance the house owner has purchased two copies, perhaps it was a film that he and his wife both wanted to see and each purchased a copy on the same day! However the three videos are shown arranged on a table ready for use.

The 3D scene was created in Cinema 4D, the images for the videos being made with Affinity Designer. The images used on the covers were made using Daz Studio and are created using Genesis 2 figures, the final render made using Iray.

I have uploaded to Flickr a copy of the actual images used for each video showing both the front back and sides. Note that only Modance has an image front and back since Paivaa and Maailman Vahincoa are only shown with their upper surfaces visible and they will be used in the same way in the final image of the 1989 living room.

Creating the images and the artwork for these simple objects required some research and was both interesting and took me back to the days many years ago when I sat in a classroom and created similar DTP artwork using a program called ClarisWorks on the Mac. Something which I remember with fondness but which seems, and perhaps now was, a whole world away from today.

If you wish, you can also see larger versions of this and, of course, my other designs and patterns for interiors on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

A major revolution happened in the 1980s with arcade games and this was spearheaded, in particular, by one game developed originally in Japan and which subsequently appeared all over the world. Unfortunately I have never been able to play games on a computer because I have problems with the flashing graphics and with the sound but if I were then this is one game that I would probably have enjoyed.

Okay, I am not going to incorporate this in the 1989 room or, indeed, in any of the 1980s work that I and doing but, it is part of that decade’s heritage and thus I thought I would take a few minutes and create my own version. Never having played the game I realise now that there are some issues but nevertheless it was an interesting exercise to do and something different to create.

The font used is News706 designed by Jackson Burke who from 1949 to 1963 was director of type development for Mergenthaler-Linotype, an important firm who developed the font, Trade Gothic, that appears just about everywhere. To illustrate the font I have included a demonstration using one of my favourite short(ish) pangrams.

If you wish, you can also see larger versions of this and, of course, my other designs and patterns for interiors on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

We have the wallpaper, now this is the design for the curtains for the 1989 living room. There has always been, at least in mid-century times, a possibility of using the same fabric for various soft furnishings about the house so this curtain material could appear as cushions, or even as loose covers for a sofa or easy chair. I have not yet completed the design for the furniture although it may well be that I will use this pattern as the fabric for a cushion.

The design is a simple one and uses a motif that is a stylised version of a motif that goes back beyond Victorian times to the 17th century in the United Kingdom. If you look at designs that are used for fabric patterns, you will find that there are many motifs that owe their existence to the patterns created many, many centuries ago.

The colours are simple colours, the type of hues that would have been available to a designer at that time. The 1980s and 90s was on the cusp of the transition between ‘decorated’ interiors and the type of interior that we see today, which show much less decoration and more solid colours.

For that reason the pattern, as with the wallcovering, is created simply and easily without too much contrast in the colours or in the pattern. I have to admit to a liking for simple and easy design as much as I do the riotous and devil-may-care designs of the 1960s.

You, in fact, don’t see that much of the curtains in the room and so, to show the design better, I have used the curtains in this rather old set which was designed to resemble a large hotel or function room.

If you wish, you can also see larger versions of this and, of course, my other designs and patterns for interiors on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

This design had the catchy title of aff335 but, once it was finished, I could not help but think of ice cream cones and, since I like my patterns to have a name, I decided on the title above. You may, or you may not, think it’s an appropriate title.

The motif is inspired by the early mid-century designs and also by the designs from earlier in that century. It is intended as a wallcovering design for use on a feature wall which does not need to leap out and bite the visitor but simply to look cool and sophisticated. The colours used are designed to be easy on the eye and to give the wall a unified look rather than providing a contrast with the background.

I have not yet been able to try this on a wall although I hope to be able to do this in the next day or so and it will be interesting to see how it looks as wallpaper.

If you wish, you can also see larger versions of this and, of course, my other designs and patterns for interiors on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

This is a very simple, very ordinary, vector pattern that uses for its inspiration mid-century designs although the colours are intended to be more modern.

I have always liked making patterns with small elements which are repeated and I like to see a pattern like this reduced in scale because there is something about the endless-seeming repeat that I find attractive. Reducing patterns to a small-scale was very much the way that patterns were created and used at the beginning of the 20th century although, since the 1950s, there has been a trend to show patterns larger.

This is part of the fashion to create design which is different and in a way contrary to accepted ways. There is nothing wrong with this and, of course, I do it myself but it is also nice to look back and re-evaluate the way that patterns are created and shown. This is so particularly because, in the fullness of time, fashions will reverse and patterns like this will be considered ‘new’ again.

If you wish, you can also see larger versions of this and, of course, my other designs and patterns for interiors and my interior 3D work on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

To go with the new room, I have created a new wallpaper surface pattern which you see above. There is nothing special about this pattern, it follows simple mid-century lines and styles although the colouring uses one of my new palettes. I have used my old, mid-century colours for quite some time now and I have, in the last few months, been updating the colours and creating several new palettes.

Before I apply the wallpaper to the wall I have to create some furniture for the room which will probably occupy me for the rest of this week. Hopefully, in the interim, I will have some new patterns to show here.

If you wish, you can also see larger versions of this and, of course, my other designs and patterns for interiors and my interior 3D work on my Flickr page, a link to which is here.

This wallpaper was designed as bedroom wallpaper for a room that does not require a loud paper and which similarly does not require a quiet one.

The motif and the colours are both mid-century and the overall look of the pattern could also be considered from that period although I have tried to create a design that looks up to date in the room.

It is not a loud pattern that is intended to be used on a large-scale and provide a wide-awake, immediate challenge to the visitor and by the same token it is not intended to be a quiet, restful design intended for a very dedicated sleeping room.

These days rooms tend to double or even triple in usage and frequently a bedroom is also a study and often also a lounge and a room in which friends are entertained. To use a particularly loud or a particularly quiet pattern in a room such as this would be to make it look odd and out of place and so this pattern is neither of these. However, it is, I hope, an attractive and entertaining design which would look the part for any of the activities mentioned.

As ever, you can also see larger versions of this and, of course, my other designs and patterns on my fabulous and ever-growing Flickr page which is here.